Christen
Masculine · “Greek "anointed”
Christen is given to both — 2,185 boys and 11,521 girls since 1880. See Christen as a girl nameSee other names given to both
To christen someone is to make them a Christian, and the Danish name Christen is that same word. English kept the verb and Denmark kept the name, both from Latin Christianus — so a name and an ordinary English verb are the same term wearing different jobs.
How old is the name Christen?
Christen first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Christen alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 2,000 people named Christen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Christen most popular?
Christen peaked in 1984, reaching #1251 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 6,428 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Where it comes from
From christos to Christen
The story of Christen
Christian was a Danish royal name — ten kings of Denmark have borne it, from 1448 to the present — which made it one of the most common men's names in the country for centuries. The shortened form Christen, and the further clipped Chresten, were ordinary rural forms. Danish and Norwegian emigration to the American Midwest in the nineteenth century brought the name over, and it survived a generation or two before merging with English Christian. The American figures for Christen peak in 1984, by which point the spelling was also serving as a masculine counterpart to the female Kristen.
Meaning
Greek "anointed", by way of "Christian"
From Latin Christianus, a Christian, from Greek christos, anointed. The English verb to christen comes from Old English cristnian, to make Christian, from the same word. Christen is the Danish and Norwegian form of the name, and was very common in Denmark; the American record also contains it as a respelling of Christian and, for women, of Kristen.
How the name formed
- christos
- Christianus
- Christen
Related forms: Christen · Kristen · Christian
Pronouncing Christen
KRIS-tin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Danish says KRES-tn with the final syllable barely sounded. The ch is a plain k, as in every English word from Greek chi.
Nicknames for Christen
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 198759 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1251reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- −28.6%10 in 2025, from 14
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Christen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Christen in Danish — same name
- Kristen in Norwegian — spelling variant
- Christian in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Christens among us
people named Christen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Christen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Christen
- #7679
- Christen on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Christen went to 10 boys in 2025, but Kristen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 908th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,771 places above the chart.
- Christen10
- Kristen10
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 170,808 for Christen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Franky test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Christen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Franky climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Franky's path sketches the road Christen is walking now.
Christen sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Christen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Christen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and the ritual behind it is well documented.
- Chris and Kris are immediate short forms.
- It is a genuine Danish name rather than a respelling.
- In America the spelling reads as the female Kristen to many people.
- Christian is far more common and will be substituted.
- It is identical in sound to the English verb.
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What they receive
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Christen
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Christens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Christen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Christen?
- Christen is the most-used spelling in US records — 10 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kristen.
- How popular is the name Christen in 2025?
- Christen ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Christen?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Christen — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Christen with classmates?
- Christen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Christen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Christen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Christen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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